Kate McInnes instructed to advise Abu Ghraib survivors on international accountability routes

Kate McInnes, Principal at Arendt Chambers, has been instructed on behalf of survivors of detention at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to advise on the avenues open to them for accountability and redress.

Abu Ghraib became synonymous with the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody after infamous photographs of their mistreatment were published in 2004. A small number of low-ranking soldiers were court-martialled, but no senior official has been prosecuted. Human Rights Watch reported in 2023 that it had found no evidence that the American government had paid compensation or other redress to survivors.

The legal landscape for survivors has changed significantly in recent months. In November 2024, after 16 years of litigation, a jury in the United States awarded $42 million to three former detainees in Al Shimari v CACI, a claim against a private contractor that supplied interrogators to the prison. The verdict was upheld on appeal in March 2026.

In June 2026, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Cisco Systems v. Doe that courts may not recognise new claims under the Alien Tort Statute, the law on which the case was founded. In August, the appeals court reversed the judgment.

Kate’s advice covered the options available across international fora, including the possibility of a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man; complaints to UN special procedures; criminal complaints in European states exercising universal jurisdiction over torture; and compensation under Iraq’s Law No. 20 of 2009.